Kiss Me for Six Seconds
by electric gurrl
Summary: The twelve things Azula and Ty Lee never realized they loved most about each other. — Azula x Ty Lee. O/S.


**Kiss Me for Six Seconds  
**

* * *

 _"Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you will look back and realize they are the big things."  
\- Kurt Vonnegut -_

* * *

Ty Lee pinches the inside of her hand to quell her migraine.

The sun is creeping up in the sky, her head is foggy, and she does not want to get out of bed. But she has to, because the world needs her, and she needs to _do_ things, as much as sometimes she hates that. Whoever let her become a responsible adult deserves a nice, hard punch in the face.

She glances to her side and sees the bed empty, and neatly made in the wake of Princess Azula. Azula could vanish quite easily, but never for long, and not forever now that they have been married for nearly five years.

Ty Lee gets up, walks towards the center of the palace living quarters, pinching her hand again more vigorously. It soothes the pain so _weakly_ that she wants to scream. She smells tea, and she knows there will not be any, oh, she _knows_ it, but she gets her hopes up anyway, because Ty Lee is an optimist.

"It's empty," Azula says and Ty Lee turns to her, rubbing one sore eye.

"But you're in here. I thought you were out training."

"I was. I went out training, and did many other things while you were sleeping." Azula shrugs with a sense of superiority.

"If you could do so many things, why could you only make enough tea for yourself? Could you not have done one thoughtful thing in the morning?" Ty Lee hisses.

Azula shrugs, ignoring how important Ty Lee's words are to her.

"Well, you should have woken up much earlier if you wanted there to be any tea left," Azula snaps cavalierly and Ty Lee glares with the fire of a thousand warriors.

"It is _not even eight in the morning yet_ ," Ty Lee growls. She sounds a bit like an angry cat, Azula notes.

"The tea doesn't know what time it is, love." Azula turns her palms up and Ty Lee's eyebrow twitches.

Ty Lee crosses her arms, grumbles something to herself, and starts to make her own tea, like she always has to, thanks to Azula and her stupid dawn training and her stupid only making enough for herself for some reason.

It's the little things that frustrate her to no end.

This was supposed to be her romantic zenith. What a joke.

[X]

Ty Lee is out shopping when she finds the book that sets off a journey into a _true romance_. Those exist, even if people laugh at the very phrase. Mai does not laugh, but she does that judgmental thing with her eyes.

"If you think Azula is going to listen to a _book_..." Mai really, truly pities Ty Lee. Really.

"I don't. I think she might listen to me," Ty Lee says with complete and utter confidence.

Maybe Mai does not pity her. Maybe Mai kind of envies her optimism.

Not that she would say it, given that she has a reputation to uphold.

 _Like_ Azula has a reputation of being cold and powerful, and therefore would never listen to self-help scrolls of any type.

[X]

That night, Azula and Ty Lee are out in the chilly air for Mai to come meet them. She has at least an hour left, they both are aware by this point in life.

Ty Lee has decided to spring the book on Azula this evening as a fake gift. Her lips are slipping into a smile as she looks at the princess and her evident frustration about being made to wait for even seconds. Her lack of patience is kind of cute.

"I'm cold," Ty Lee whispers, her eyes widening and glittering like a baby animal.

Azula looks at her, and how she shivers in the sweet night breeze. "Well, unfortunately, Ty Lee, love many things under the absurd regime of my brother, I cannot control the weather."

Ty Lee pouts like a child, and Azula rolls her eyes. And then Azula sees that Ty Lee did not _notice_ that Azula rolled her eyes, and so she rolls her eyes again as Azula takes Ty Lee's hands and warms them.

And her lips next, of course.

While Azula anticipated being interrupted by Mai, she is instead interrupted by something hard hitting against her chest. Ty Lee shoves a book against her.

"I got this," she says fiercely as Azula steps back and waits for her vision to come into focus. It is a... _book_? "And I want us to try it."

"What kind of book is it?" Azula asks very slowly and Ty Lee starts laughing, her eyes squeezed shut with the realization of what she just implied.

"No, no, it's not a, no, it's not a sex thing, it's, oh, it's about how to keep romance, oh, alive and vivid for years." Ty Lee is laughing so hard her stomach hurts. Azula just smirks, but that is enough for her wife.

"Well, you haven't fled in terror for a strong seven or eight years, so I think we are doing fine on our own," Azula says with her arms crossed casually. She looks like royalty when she stands, and Ty Lee wants to stand by her all the time.

Even when she is so angry.

"You don't make enough tea for two people," Ty Lee states.

Azula does not hide rolling her eyes this time. "I misunderstand how that could possibly be worse than you ruining my life on multiple occasions, or you saying no when I first asked you out and our first kiss lasting less than six seconds before you turned away ─"

"You also hold grudges." Ty Lee sighs exasperatedly. They've been here before.

"You cry like a whiny brat when you don't get what you want." Same words, different place.

" _You_ have never apologized once for _anything_." Same complaint for nearly a decade.

"You think I am the only person who has any changes to make in her personality. I happen to be very talented at changing my behaviors in order to keep from being executed, while you have glaring flaws that you absolutely refuse to work on." Ignored by Ty Lee since the day Azula decided to get out of bed.

Ty Lee glares for a moment. The traditional argument usually ends here, but she does not stop. She tosses the book down onto the stone pavement and kicks it aside. "Yeah, like what, huh? I'm _sorry_ that I didn't have any time to work on helping myself while I was focused on helping you."

"You are flighty, and whenever I complain to you, you just list all of the things you've done for me and cry about how victimized you are..." Azula shrugs, and knows now she is going to hear about how much Ty Lee sacrifices for Azula until the princess just quits and breaks a few things.

Ty Lee has more, and more and more. "You won't let me go anywhere with my friends because you hate them."

"What can I say? I am so terribly selfish and I have no desire to change that at all, because that's what you love about me. You want to change me." Azula laughs and it is not the uncontrollable giggles of Ty Lee before, or her happy smirk. It is a mirthless, superior cackle.

"Well, you ─ wait, what?" Ty Lee's lips part in surprise, and she is so taken aback that Azula's laughter ceases.

"Hm?"

"What?" Ty Lee asks, blinking several times fast.

"You're one of those girls who loves the idea of changing the broken, sexy person who everyone says to stay away from," Azula says honestly with a careless shrug. "It isn't like I never noticed. It isn't like _anyone_ never noticed."

Ty Lee looks very disconcerted by that, as if she was honestly never aware after so many years. After _marrying Azula_. The princess has to suppress laughter.

"I didn't..." Ty Lee frowns very faintly. "That's not..."

"It's alright. I am sure everyone is glad you chose me instead of someone else, since you were certain to do it. It's your personality. You want to be _the one_ and at least I'm a known and quantifiable evil." Deadpan; it is Azula's honest deadpan that makes Ty Lee's heart bleed.

"I'm not _nineteen_. I don't want that and, do you really think that about me?" Her genuine hurt was a little more than startling to Azula.

"It doesn't mean you don't love me, but how many more people ask you why you stay than how we met or if we're planning on kids or any of those questions everyone else gets?" Azula asks with an awareness of her smug tone she is not used to.

Ty Lee has tears in her eyes that Azula does not understand. The _emotions_ are why the princess avoids these direct confrontations about _real_ issues outside of the shallow frustrations of being together.

"Well, then why do _you_ stay?" Ty Lee snaps, and she is not vicious. She just wants to know.

Azula hesitates for a moment, picking at her lips and not wanting to express it. Yes, she is that person, that person those girls want to get to express love but just cannot. And Azula is intelligent and charismatic enough to know that right now is a vital moment.

Maybe the most vital in a very long time.

"I say one thing, you give me one back," Azula orders and Ty Lee clenches her jaw before surrendering.

"Alright." She nods and blinks back her tears for now.

Azula looks anywhere but Ty Lee as she speaks; Ty Lee fixates her gaze on her feet.

* * *

(1) _"I love that you seem to think that there is more than one shade of red."_

Azula and Ty Lee are painting over the scratches and stains on their bedroom walls. It should be a simple task, given that it can quickly be allocated to servants of various types, but Ty Lee wants it to be perfect, and Azula will make it perfect for her.

It is Azula's sole marital desire to make sure her wife experiences utter perfection, at any cost.

And so she finds herself gesturing to the heavy paint weighing down some young man she doesn't care to know the name of.

"No, that's pomegranate," Ty Lee says as she examines that paint Azula has suggested. The boy whimpers and Azula rolls her eyes at his incompetence. "I _want_ crimson sunset."

Azula cocks an eyebrow. "This is red. You asked to paint the room red. I asked for red paint."

Ty Lee sighs airily and leans against the window, arching her back. The sun glimmers on her, highlighting her very tempting features, but Azula shakes her head.

"I asked for a red that complemented the curtains I picked out, which are cerise fire-lily," Ty Lee says sweetly, but with such a bitter glare.

"They are red. Those curtains are red, Ty Lee." Azula maintains her steely gaze.

Ty Lee walks over to the princess, kisses her quickly, and seizes the paint to have it returned. The boy runs after her, rubbing his sore arms and glancing nervously at Princess Azula.

Azula continues staring at the scuffed walls of her bedroom, and trying to figure out how there could possibly be different types of _red_.

.

(2) _"I love that you care how many seconds our kisses last for."_

Breathless and sweaty, Azula conceals her panic with an icy demeanor, pushing Ty Lee away and examining her nails. The acrobat stares with her lips ajar, uncertain what she could have done wrong in such a brilliant encounter.

"That was fun, but you can leave," the princess purrs and Ty Lee's lips part in shock. Azula looks up with a faux startled smirk. "What? Did you think I cared about this encounter?"

"I did," Ty Lee whispers.

"You clearly did not," Azula says coldly, but Ty Lee suddenly senses that she cares _very_ much. "That kiss was barely four seconds long."

Ty Lee scratches her head. "What?"

"Six seconds. Kisses between people with lasting relationships last for six seconds. Ours never do and I have gotten the message." Azula is frigid again, and Ty Lee cannot even react to how strange that was.

At least not in time to stop Azula from dressing herself and kiss her for six seconds.

.

(3) _"I love how hot we both are."_

Ty Lee is excited to be at the ball because she loves parties. Azula is excited for another reason altogether.

Azula can see the eyes on them. She has her eyes open when she kisses her date, and she savors the stares. The princess is used to people staring at her, or glaring, and quickly looking away. But when she goes to these stupid events, she proves that she has the hottest mate here, and she is the hottest one here.

They envy and desire she and Ty Lee, and how they look so good together.

It is invigorating to be stared at not because she is crazy, but because people want to be her.

.

(4) _"I love it when you tie all my scarves together into knots so that I don't lose them again."_

Ty Lee wails hysterically in despair, and Azula does not bother to hide her disdain. This happens _every_ single time Ty Lee leaves the palace, which Azula does not recommend in the first place.

Right now scarves are _in_ for some absurd reason, and Ty Lee misplaces the ones she likes without fail every day. How it is so easy for her to lose the accessories, Azula has no idea. Yet, Ty Lee seems to think that she would be naked if she is not fashionable enough in public.

Perhaps Azula would seem the same way if she had any desire to go in public while not on the Royal Balcony giving riveting speeches.

After Ty Lee finds a supposedly subpar scarf and leaves, Princess Azula cannot stop thinking about how to remedy the eardrum piercing sobs as she goes through her day. Not to mention that in her extensive research of romantic gestures, it is very appreciated to do kind and unexpected things to make your wife's life easier.

So Azula decides to track down every ugly hunk of silk, which is not as difficult as Ty Lee makes it seem.

That evening, Ty Lee comes home and begins undressing as Azula is perched on the windowsill, waiting for her like a lion-vulture.

"I have a gift for you," Azula says, throwing some mangled and terrifying object onto the bed like a cat presenting a dead elephant-mouse. "That was a thoughtful gesture."

Ty Lee looks up and cannot argue, because Azula does genuinely think she has done something kind. But Ty Lee does really have to ask, "What is it?"

"You are always so distressed that you lose your scarves in the morning, so I tied them all together."

Ty Lee has to try so, _so_ hard not to laugh. And then not to cry over her ruined scarves.

.

(5) _"I love it when you sing to me."_

While they are on vacation in the Ba Sing Se, Ty Lee finds Azula upstairs in Iroh's apartment.

She is hunched over on their loosely made bed, editing their horrid vacation planner during raucous and boring _music night_. The acrobat's skin is dripping with sweat as she holds her stringed instrument in hand, and walks to her wife as the music begins to quiet. The night is growing older than Iroh's friends, and Ty Lee is trying to figure out why Azula has secluded herself.

Other than her general hatred for fun, given the color coded planner for every second of their month long getaway.

"Why aren't you at music night?" she inquires playfully. Ty Lee shuts the door with her heel and strides across the room.

She sits beside Azula and the princess slowly looks up with a solemn expression. "I do not play any instruments. Firebending was a more productive hobby."

"Your uncle says you can sing." Ty Lee smirks before seeing that Azula does not find it funny.

"He should not slander people like that!" Azula shrieks with a very unnecessary level of vehemence.

Ty Lee does not have to be a genius to figure it out. That kind of emotion about petty things is always related to her mother or father, and she has a different tone for each one. For her father, she is cold, glacial and her anger has a sick wistfulness attached to it. She will always love him, and Ty Lee accepts that. Her mother will always be a fresh burn, and her rage is hot, out of control, her voice brittle.

But Ty Lee refuses to let either of Azula's parents ruin her life.

"You can sing and I want you to do it for me," Ty Lee says softly as she very gently strums the strings.

"I cannot, and I refuse," Azula says before returning to the soothing scheduling. She gazes at her ink-stained hands instead of Ty Lee's sparkling, begging eyes.

"It's romantic," Ty Lee says, batting her eyelashes, and Azula is immovable. "Why won't you? Please." She pouts. "Even if you can't, which I doubt, I'm not so great at this either. We're alone. Do it just for me."

"How about you just play that for me?" Azula suggests sleekly, but Ty Lee shakes her head.

"Don't let your parents ruin your life," Ty Lee dares to say, her heart skipping a beat, even though she knows it must be said at some point.

Azula reacts briefly in anger, but then sighs. "Just for you. Now, and not again."

It is a lie, even if she doesn't know it at the time. Their trip might be dictated by a planner, but tonight is perfect as Ty Lee clumsily strums a melody, while transfixed by something only she has heard, something so beautiful that is just for her.

She gets to hear it again, once or twice.

Because Ty Lee is the only one, and she loves nothing more than being the only one.

.

(6) _"I love it when you give me flowers I'm allergic to."_

Azula is slowly killing a bouquet of flowers.

She cannot burn them; that would be too obvious. Draining the water also would be evident. While Azula is not a flower expert, she is slowly removing anything that looks _alive_ with her fingernails or anything sharp enough when no one is looking.

Often, she questions why she did not just burn them to a crisp in front of Ty Lee. If it were anyone else, she would take great pleasure in their tears. In fact, as Azula feels herself unpleasantly suffocating, she fantasizes about it.

But some deplorable invisible force that has wormed its way into her body will not allow her to do it openly. It is the same string wrapped around her that reminds her that her disposition in marriage is to give perfection to her wife and nothing less.

And she is... quite smug about Ty Lee being the unaware one about the birthday gift for once. She wants to grin and bear it like Ty Lee does, and then let it come out like Ty Lee does and it will hurt so much. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Yet, Azula does not like being weakened by _allergies_. And so the flowers must quietly die.

She does eventually poison it with Mai's perfume, and watches Ty Lee scream at her in rage for nearly an hour.

Now that is the perfect birthday gift.

Ty Lee is so pretty when she is angry.

.

(7) _"I love how you, even when I totally fuck up and am selfish, you still sleep next to me at night."_

Azula is very carefully adjusting the shelf, with her trademark precision.

Ty Lee is sucking on her pillow without realizing it, knowing she has caused this, and not knowing what to do to help. Azula has said nothing, but saw what Ty Lee did to their room while on a hunt for a bracelet that she did not even find, and it turned out about as well as Ty Lee thought it would.

The acrobat has asked her wife many times why everything has to be so exact, and why she cannot make a single mistake in each routine. She always was obscenely meticulous about her every endeavor since they were little kids. Ty Lee remembers Azula once loaned her a book, and she folded one of the pages, and Ty Lee had never been so scared in her life when she returned it.

But that was just perfectionism, and the ingrained fear of retribution from her father. Now things make very little sense, and now it is some kind of divine retribution she fears. Ty Lee has no clue what to do, just like she feels about everything else, but just exist beside Azula and hope she doesn't fuck it up too much.

"Is it...?" Ty Lee whispers and Azula glances at her. "Just, it's not a big deal! No one will die and the world won't end because of it!"

Ty Lee tosses down her pillow as Azula exhales sharply and has to force herself to turn around. And Ty Lee has to force herself not to just grab her and either ask for forgiveness or ask her to look at herself or ask her to actually confront what scarred her instead of coping.

"It doesn't harm you."

"But I don't like it! It bothers me!" and Ty Lee has forgotten all she said next save for the fact that Azula's response was the type she gives when she is truly, truly livid.

When Azula is just angry, she is violent and cruel, loud, a bit passionate if cold. But when she is quiet, composed and meek, she is livid. Her nose is red too, and Ty Lee wants Azula to be in the wrong so much, but she knows it was her.

But they lie next to each other. And Ty Lee sets her feet near Azula's back instead of on it, but it's close enough.

It's close to her.

.

(8) _"I love it when you write me a love note in my favorite lipstick and ruin it."_

It is the Love Spirit Festival in the Fire Nation. The day is dedicated to yellow roses and paper dragons, and Ty Lee is showered in gifts. And she has plenty for Azula of course, because most of their gifts are apologetic.

And when Ty Lee walks into the bathroom, she finds a note in lipstick on the mirror.

Ty Lee decides that it is a very romantic love note. It is not, oh, at all. But she thinks it was meant to be funny, to be honest, since Azula is very good with words, and her cards for the Love Spirit Festival are filled with speeches much more beautiful than the paper dragons Ty Lee makes for her.

So the poem should be taken light-heartedly.

 _There is only one shade of red_

 _And something, something, romantic, fire or flowers or water blue_

 _I'd start any type of devastating war_

 _Just to please you_

It is written in lipstick, likely because there was an attempt at a kiss that was rubbed out in a second thought. Azula being too embarrassed to kiss the mirror is cute for a moment to Ty Lee until she finds the small, golden container of lipstick.

No. Why? _Why?_

Ty Lee crumbles beneath the porcelain sink.

.

(9) _"I love it when you bring me my wine at night, even though it's so beneath you."_

Azula has a bottle of expensive wine pressed against her body, the neck close to between her breasts, and Ty Lee is standing in front of her, begging for it, after lounging around and demanding it of the princess. Now, Azula has some clear advantage, and she is going to leech all she can from it.

"Kneel," Azula orders and Ty Lee sighs.

"Permission to speak freely, Princess Conqueror?" Ty Lee says, rolling her eyes.

Well, she does want kids, and if they are _anything_ like Azula...

She needs some practice playing pretend and groveling halfheartedly to fulfill simple requests like a bottle of wine.

"You do not seem to do anything else," Azula responds, still holding the bottle in her hand, pressed to her chest.

Ty Lee does contemplate kneeling, because Azula does look quite amazingly sexy, as usual. But now, that might be an interesting turn of events...

"I think, this should at least be fun kneeling. I mean, that's strategic placement of that bottle, right?"

Azula smirks. She quite agrees.

.

(10) _"I love it when you tell my mother that some species don't eat their young and that I would be ten times better than her, because at least I was competent enough to keep a koi fish alive."_

It is morning five of Azula having a pet, and she goes to check on it with no hopes of its survival. Her father used to buy her pets and then give them away within days, and he told her she would kill them if she kept them.

There was much prodding involved in getting her to buy a koi fish.

"The fish is alive," Azula states, stunned, as Ty Lee walks in.

"Does this mean we're ready for kids?" Ty Lee asks blithely before pretending she was joking. Azula knows that she isn't, but it is a subject that they have no intention of breaching yet. Azula has gotten a fish for no reason, and Zuko said she would kill it, and, so, of course, she has been fixated on keeping it alive.

"We can be koi fish and potential cat parents," Azula says as she walks to Ty Lee and sets her hand on her back. "And perhaps fun aunts who make my brother look horrible."

Ty Lee smiles faintly and tries to fantasize about that, even if it is not what she desires at all.

"You would be a great mom," Ty Lee whispers, even though she knows she should not. She should not have said that, because Azula's nails do drive very fiercely into Ty Lee's spine with not a single apology and very clear intent.

"We have time," Azula says as she releases the grip. Ty Lee bites on her lower lip and tries not to cry, because she can hear Mai and Zuko outside and very conveniently, Azula's mother is visiting, and she refuses to show any of that in front of people.

"We have a koi fish," Ty Lee says, clenching her fists to keep from touching her back.

She thinks it is definitely the pain, and the deep cuts and bruises she finds there later that make her break a champagne glass and give a tipsy speech about how some species don't eat their young to Ursa, after she asks Mai and Zuko about their life together, and their future children, and then fumbles with her daughter and Ty Lee, and really _does try_ Ty Lee realizes later, which makes her feel like a horrible person. But she does just ask if Ty Lee had her hair done differently.

Better than the hushed, _Why do you stay?_ But so upsetting, so angry.

The passionate, private kiss from Azula afterwards makes the guilt a little less strong.

.

(11) _"I love it when you name stray cats and let them wander around, even when they bite you."_

Azula looks at Ty Lee and her sore arm, and she knows it was those stupid stray animals.

"You brought that on yourself," Azula purrs as she watches Ty Lee bandaging her wound. "But I am very willing to kiss you better on any other part of your body than the wound."

Ty Lee pouts and sighs. "I gave her food and everything. She seemed so nice and I have no idea why she bit me."

"Strange animals are so cruel," Azula says as she rubs Ty Lee's arm with her cold, bony hands that are so counter-intuitively sexy. "Describe the cat and I will have it... removed from the palace courtyard and set free."

Ty Lee looks up at her. "She has fur and her name is Sniffles."

Azula has no response to that.

.

(12) _"I love it when you stay with me."_

Ty Lee is exhausted, but she is instantly awakened by an adrenaline rush when she sees that the bed beside her is vacant and not neatly made, as Azula usually has it. She gets to her feet and starts walking, feeling queasy already, not sure what she will do if she finds something that she truly cannot handle seeing.

Her hands tremble when she does find the princess, and Ty Lee does not hear her own sigh of relief. Azula is half asleep, or so it seems, and she does have claw marks on herself. Red and ugly and very neatly over scars that are already there, older and newer, most of them not self-inflicted, but reopened many times.

Those nightmares are impossible to understand, and Ty Lee is aware of that. Ty Lee can feel her chest constricting, but she cannot think about the pain that Azula's pain causes her, even though she thinks about it all the time, and complains about it too often.

She sits there, and says softly, "Are you awake at all?" and even if she weren't, Ty Lee wouldn't leave.

"Yes." Azula clearly does not want to be. "Go away. You have no right to intrude."

But she grabs Ty Lee's hand, and does not let go.

* * *

Ty Lee is silent for a moment, and Azula does not notice, still lost in time with her.

"I _love_ that you're not perfect, and I'm awful and petty and selfish, and that the best times are when it all goes so wrong," Ty Lee says brightly and it all comes to a screeching halt.

"You shut up," Azula says, refusing to continue, refusing to admit more. She has said enough, though.

"But I loved it even more when you missed and kissed me on the nose."

"Now that is going way too far." Azula feels so uncomfortable right now as she is pulled out of the moment. She said things she would have never let herself in a thousand years as she was in this bubble in which the past and future didn't exist, and no one but they did either.

She feels strange now and _certainly_ does not want to be reminded of her shameful first kiss.

"Oh, but _imagine now_ if you missed and kissed my nose for the perfect six seconds." Ty Lee laughs and Azula forces herself not to smile.

"No." Her eyes flare.

" _Azula_. You keep saying that the perfect romance consists of kisses that last for exactly six seconds, and that apparently I can't count that high because I always screw it up. Just do it. You just told me all of _that_ , I mean," Ty Lee says with a widening, excited grin.

"No." Azula tilts up her chin, and it is definite. She has laid down law, until she adds, "If you want it so much, you do it."

"I am completely unashamed to do that!" Ty Lee declares, thrilled, and she leans forward, trying not to think too much about it.

Azula finds it exceptionally uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as what she just went through. It feels like quite the odd catharsis, and their relationship is just odd in general. So, the fact that Ty Lee has just kissed Azula's nose and has reached four seconds before she pulls away, ruining it yet again.

Because of the applause, from a single person.

And Mai says, "I can't believe I missed the beginning, but that was the best kiss I've ever seen in my life. Can you do it again, but more passionately?"

[X]

Azula makes enough tea for two people the next morning. It was not difficult, and she knew it, even if she also knew that Ty Lee should work on some of _her_ flaws too.

But Azula is also always awake for four hours before her wife and probably can afford the two seconds that it takes to do that.

Ty Lee looks happier than she ever has in her life, which briefly horrifies Azula. People should not ever be that happy. Ever. But it dulls as they sit there, and Azula agrees to stay with her.

They don't talk, because there is no reason to speak.

Maybe Ty Lee is trying to tame the coquette, and maybe Azula has more abandonment issues than an orphanage in a desert, but they've done slightly better than expected.

It's so easy to forget that romance isn't a formula that can be executed flawlessly, and that the course of true love would be really boring if it ran smooth.

This is Ty Lee's vision of true love, her romantic zenith.

It's just this morning with her, having tea.


End file.
